After moving to Silicon Valley and starting his own company, Ferriss took a break from it all and embarked on a journey that resulted in his becoming a self-proclaimed "human guinea pig" who seeks out and learns from people at the top of their fields, from musicians to hedge fund managers, writers to chefs.

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1. Initially prioritize learning over money

Ferriss said that it's worth fighting the urge to go for the job that will get you the biggest paycheck when you're establishing yourself.

"If you optimize for money too early, you will be minimizing for learning, almost without exception," he said.

"So look at the first few years out as an apprenticeship where you cover your costs," he said. "And if you're looking in business, I would say, be in the room as much as possible to observe the decision-makers and dealmakers."

He said, for example, that if there were someone interested in technology startups and they had a choice between a 1,000-5,000 person team in a hot company and a fast-growing 30-person team in a field as unsexy as waste management — but with the opportunity to work alongside the leadership team — he'd recommend the garbage industry job without hesitation.

2. Learn transferable skills

He then explained that when undertaking this early career education, it's worth focusing on the material that will help you when you are ready to start going after high-paying, respected jobs.

Ferriss said that if your job entails something niche like placing ads on Instagram, by all means learn how to do that well, "but spend equal time developing the higher level skills like negotiation, persuasion, copywriting."

He explained: "These are skills that transfer to many, many other domains, which gives you a lot of flexibility and a lot of leverage."